Gökhan Ergöçün
March 28, 2019•Update: March 29, 2019
ISTANBUL
The Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) dropped both in the Euro Area (EA) and the European Union month-on-month in March, the EU Commission (EC) announced on Thursday.
The index in the EA fell by 0.7 points to 105.5, while in the EU it fell by 0.4 points to 105 in March on a monthly basis, according to a press release by the commission.
The ESI decrease in the euro area resulted from lower confidence in industry and services, while confidence improved in consumer, retail trade and construction.
In the EA, industry, and services indices dropped by 1.3 and 0.8 points, respectively.
"Behind the somewhat milder decline of the headline indicator in the EU (negative 0.4) was a partial rebound of sentiment in the largest non-euro area EU economy," the press release read.
Spain saw the largest sentiment rise with 2.3 points in March, while Germany (negative 1.8 points) and the Netherlands (negative 1.3 points) were the worst performers.
"The ESI is a composite indicator made up of five sectoral confidence indicators with different weights," according to the commission.
Turkey’s economic confidence rose month-on-month in March, up 3.1 percent to reach at 81.9, the Turkish Statistical Institute said early Thursday.
EU Commission also noted that the Business Climate Indicator (BCI) for the EA dropped by 0.16 points to 0.69.
"All the five components of the indicator worsened: While managers' views of the past production, their production expectations, and their assessments of both overall and export order books declined significantly," the EC said.
